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The calm…before the sh*t storm.

Oklahoma to Florida

So the south wasn’t very friendly to us this trip in regards to the weather. Made it from Amarillo to Weatherford Oklahoma in some of the nicest weather we had seen in days. We got to Oklahoma, set up camp, cooked up a couple steaks, and enjoyed a couple cocktails in the sun. The resort wanderlust crossings rv was hands down the nicest resort we have yet to stay at. We will admit, the bathrooms are always the true testament to how nice a resort actually is. We only stayed there for the night and it was the best night sleep we had in the past two weeks of travel. Next morning we headed out to our second Oklahoma stop at the Marval RV Resort in Gore, Oklahoma. It was the total opposite of wanderlust but we knew every resort would be different and unique in its own way. Rolled up and noticed how many full time RVers were on site. We are talking hundreds of class A motorhomes and monster 5th wheels and toy-haulers with custom built wood decks and their own sheds and golf carts. Those people were definitely there for long term stays.

Found our spot, number 111, right in between two huge trailers on a concrete slab surrounded by fallen leaves and plenty of mud. Began to back the trailer up onto the concrete plateau and what to ya know, we nearly had another hitch catastrophe. The ground level was much lower than the space we had to back on to. We had to improvise on how the hell we would move the trailer up into the spot without destroying the hitch, again. We needed to lift the rear of the car so the hitch had enough clearance to back into the spot. After a few minutes of thinking we came up with a plan. Our trusty old blocks were the answer. We placed the blocks behind the rear tires and rolled right up and over. What do ya know, it worked. Got the trailer set up in the rain and mud, went to go hook up the water hose and yet again, it was just a little to short to reach the spigot. We clearly couldn’t win with the hose or much anything else this trip.

Hunkered down in the trailer while it rained and rained and rained. Thought to ourselves maybe we should check the weather and see what’s going on, when will the rain stop? Damn good thing we checked because the storms we thought we were missing had shifted course, and we were about to be the center of it. The storm called for high winds of 60+mph, flooding, tornados, and quarter size hail. Brooke looks at me and askes, “would you rather be on the beach for the next three weeks sippin on pina coladas, or running from these storms?” In my mind I was like of course I would love that but this trip means so much to us, what do we do? So after a phone call to Brooke’s mom Brenda, who helped us solidify our thoughts, we knew we had a decision to make, it really was a no brainer. We packed up the trailer and set our sites on Sarasota . We had a window of one day to travel safely before the wave of storms hit.

Got on the road at 4:30 AM Monday morning and didn’t stop until 9:30 that night. In one day we drove through the rest of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, into Georgia. That’s a whole 16 hours of driving. As we were driving through each state we had received several storm warnings. Some for flood warnings, some for high winds, and at that moment we knew we had made the right choice to leave. Made our stop in Atlanta for the night to get some rest for the final day of driving ahead.

Hit the road first thing the next morning for a 7 hour drive to our final destination. Flew through the rest of Georgia in about 3 hours and made the final run through Florida to Sarasota just in time before sundown.

The next obstacle we faced was where in the heck are we going to stay in Florida for the night? Every snowbird of the north had booked up all the local rv resorts in the south. One thing we realized is how popular the state of Florida is during the winter, how many people have the same idea to escape the cold for a few months out of the year. Anyways, my uncle Jack was kind enough to let us park our trailer in the driveway for the night while we find another place to stay for the remainder of the week. Well our one night stay turned into a one week stay, which was fine, he helped us save a couple bucks.

For those of you who may or may not know why we made our destination Sarasota Florida for our first trip was to help take care of my (Leah) mom. She was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy a little over a decade ago. The disease has progressed slowly over the years and unfortunately it has now got to the stage where her mobility has become very limited. She has been very independent throughout the years of living with this condition and endlessly positive. So Brooke and I have come down to help relieve some of the responsibilities of my uncle, who has been an absolute saint, and get things prepared for the next stages of her condition. Since Brooke and I are three weeks ahead of our arrival date we figured we would do a little traveling around Florida. We are heading to the eastern coast of Florida to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami for one week to spend a little more time with family and friends. Then the next week we are going to enjoy a little bit of Caribbean paradise in the Florida Keys.

Despite our absence we hope to continue sharing our journey with you guys. So much more to come! Stay tuned for our Key West adventure.